CN116349307A

CN116349307A - Cell measurement method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN116349307A
Application number: CN202080106466.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王燕春; 周全; 乐国军
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-30
Filing date: 2020-11-30
Publication date: 2023-06-27
Also published as: US20230300701A1; WO2022110215A1; EP4236473A4; KR20230107340A; EP4236473B1; EP4236473A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a cell measurement method and a related device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment sends first measurement control information to terminal equipment through a first service cell, the first measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, the center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell and the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same, the frequency range of the virtual cell is contained in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the frequency range of the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the first access network equipment receives a first measurement report from the terminal equipment, wherein the first measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell; and under the condition that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than that of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell, the first access network equipment transfers the terminal equipment to the third service cell. By the method, the terminal equipment can be prevented from being interfered by far and near.

Description

Cell measurement method and related device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a cell measurement method and a related device.

Background

With the continuous development of mobile communication technology, coverage of New Radio (NR) mobile communication technology is gradually expanding. There are cases where long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) technology and NR technology coexist in a communication network.

In some application scenarios, two adjacent cells may support different systems on the same frequency band. In both LTE and NR communication systems, through co-frequency measurement and handover in the same communication system, it is ensured that a mobile terminal can be always located in a cell of a strongest signal in the same communication system, and a terminal device cannot perform inter-system co-frequency measurement without additional power consumption.

Under the condition that the service signal provided by the service cell is stronger than the neighbor cell signal sent by the adjacent heterogeneous common-frequency cell, the neighbor cell signal can cause stronger interference to the service signal received by the terminal equipment; in addition, in order to ensure that the service cell can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device, the terminal device increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the service cell. The above-mentioned situation is called near-far interference, and how to avoid the near-far interference of the terminal device in the same-frequency heterogeneous network is a problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a cell measurement method and a related device, which can avoid the terminal equipment from being interfered by far and near.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for measuring a cell, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment sends first measurement control information to terminal equipment through a first service cell, wherein the first measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, the center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same, the frequency range of the virtual cell is contained in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the frequency range of the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the first access network device receives a first measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the first measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell; the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to a third service cell under the condition that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than that of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the first access network device, or the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the second access network device; and the system of the third service cell is the same as that of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell, or the system of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell. By the method, the terminal equipment can be prevented from being interfered by far and near.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the migrating, by the first access network device, the terminal device to a third serving cell includes: the first access network device sends second measurement control information to the terminal device, wherein the second measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal device to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell; the first access network device receives a second measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the second measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the third service cell; and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, where the cell identities of the one or more serving cells include a cell identity of the third serving cell, and the first access network device migrates the terminal device to the third serving cell, including: the first access network device selects the third service cell from one or more stored service cells adjacent to the first service cell; and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores a cell identifier of the virtual cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identifier of the virtual cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identity of the virtual cell, where the cell identity of the virtual cell is different from the cell identities of the one or more serving cells.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the virtual cell does not provide an access service for the terminal device.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method of the second serving cell being different from the method of the first serving cell includes: the system supported by the first service cell is a system in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the system supported by the second service cell is a system in new wireless NR; or the system supported by the first service cell is the system in NR, and the system supported by the second service cell is the system in LTE.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the first access network device, and the method further includes: the first access network device sends a downlink signal of the virtual cell, where the downlink signal includes the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the downlink reference signal includes a cell reference signal CRS.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the downlink signal further includes one or more of a primary synchronization signal PSS, a secondary synchronization signal SSS, and a system information block, where the system information block includes indication information indicating that the virtual cell does not provide access service for the terminal device.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the downlink reference signal is a demodulation reference signal DMRS, the downlink signal is a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB, and the SSB includes the DMRS.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first access network equipment sends indication information to terminal equipment accessed to the second service cell through the second service cell; the indication information is used for indicating available time-frequency resources of the terminal equipment accessing the second service cell, wherein the available time-frequency resources are different from time-frequency resources occupied by the downlink signals of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, including a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, and a migration unit, where: the sending unit is configured to send, to a terminal device through a first serving cell, first measurement control information, where the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell and the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same, a frequency range of the virtual cell is included in a frequency range of a second serving cell, and the frequency range of the second serving cell overlaps with the frequency range of the first serving cell; the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the first access network device, or the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the second access network device; the receiving unit is configured to receive a first measurement report from the terminal device, where the first measurement report indicates quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell; the migration unit is configured to migrate the terminal device to a third serving cell when the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, where the system of the third serving cell is the same as that of the first serving cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell, or the system of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the migration unit is specifically configured to: transmitting second measurement control information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell; receiving a second measurement report from the terminal device, the second measurement report indicating a quality of a downlink reference signal of the third serving cell; and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, where the cell identities of the one or more serving cells include the cell identity of the third serving cell, and the migration unit is specifically configured to: selecting the third serving cell from one or more stored serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell; and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores a cell identifier of the virtual cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identifier of the virtual cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identity of the virtual cell, where the cell identity of the virtual cell is different from the cell identities of the one or more serving cells.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the virtual cell does not provide an access service for the terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method of the second serving cell being different from the method of the first serving cell includes: the system supported by the first service cell is a system in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the system supported by the second service cell is a system in new wireless NR; or the system supported by the first service cell is the system in NR, and the system supported by the second service cell is the system in LTE.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the first access network device, and the sending unit is further configured to: and transmitting a downlink signal of the virtual cell, wherein the downlink signal comprises the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the downlink reference signal includes a cell reference signal CRS.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the downlink signal further includes one or more of PSS, SSS, and a system information block, where the system information block includes indication information indicating that the virtual cell does not provide access service for the terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the downlink reference signal is a DMRS, the downlink signal is an SSB, and the SSB includes the DMRS.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is further configured to: transmitting indication information to terminal equipment accessed to the second service cell through the second service cell; the indication information is used for indicating available time-frequency resources of the terminal equipment accessing the second service cell, wherein the available time-frequency resources are different from time-frequency resources occupied by the downlink signals of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising a processor coupled to a memory; the memory is used for storing program codes; the processor is configured to invoke the program code from the memory to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed, cause a method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to be implemented.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, which includes at least one processor and an interface for supporting the first access network device to implement the functions referred to in the first aspect, e.g. to receive or process at least one of data and information referred to in the above-mentioned method. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data for the first access network device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first access network device may determine, according to the first measurement report, that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, which is likely to cause a problem of near-far interference. In this case, the first access network device migrates the terminal device to the third server cell, so that the terminal device can be prevented from being interfered by far and near.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

FIGS. 1A-1B are schematic diagrams of some network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIGS. 2A-2B are schematic diagrams of still other network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

3-5 are schematic diagrams of further network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIGS. 6A-6B are schematic diagrams of still other network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIGS. 7-9 are schematic diagrams of still other network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

fig. 10 is a flowchart of a method for measuring a cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of frequency ranges of a first serving cell, a virtual cell, and a second serving cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of frequency ranges of another first serving cell, a virtual cell, and a second serving cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

13-20 are schematic diagrams of further network architectures provided by embodiments of the present application;

fig. 21 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of still another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 23 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are described in more detail below.

The terminology used in the following embodiments of the application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," "the," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates to the contrary. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used in this application refers to and encompasses any or all possible combinations of one or more of the listed items.

It should also be understood that the first, second, third, fourth, and various numerical numbers referred to herein are merely descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present application.

The embodiments of the present application may be applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A, where the network architecture shown in fig. 1A is a network architecture of a wireless communication system, and the network architecture generally includes a terminal device and an access network device, and the number and the form of each device are not limited to the embodiments of the present application. In fig. 1A, an access network device 1, an access network device 2, and one or more terminal devices are included (in the figure, terminal device 1, terminal device 2 are taken as an example, terminal device 1 camping on LTE cell 1, and terminal device 2 camping on NR cell 1). Specifically, the LTE cell 1 corresponds to the access network device 1, which can be understood that the access network device 1 provides the LTE cell 1, and provides a communication service for the terminal device 1 through the LTE cell 1. The NR cell 1 corresponds to the access network device 2, and it is understood that the access network device 2 provides the NR cell 1 and provides a communication service for the terminal device 2 through the NR cell 1. Wherein the dashed lines in fig. 1A represent the coverage of the cells, the same reference numerals in the following illustrations may be referred to for the description. The LTE cell is a cell adopting the communication scheme of LTE, and the NR cell is a cell adopting the communication scheme of NR. The frequency ranges of the LTE cell 1 and the NR cell 1 overlap.

In the system shown in fig. 1A, an access network device 1 may transmit signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 1) camped in an LTE cell 1 through the LTE cell 1, and an access network device 2 may transmit signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 2) camped in the NR cell 1 through the NR cell 1. When the access network device 2 transmits a signal to the terminal device 2 through the NR cell 1, the terminal device 1 may receive the signal transmitted by the access network device 2, which causes interference to communication between the terminal device 1 and the access network device 1, so that the signal may be regarded as an interference signal. In addition, in order to ensure that the access network device 1 can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 1, the terminal device 1 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the access LTE cell 1.

Referring to fig. 1B, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. In fig. 1B, an access network device 4, an access network device 5, and one or more terminal devices (terminal device 6, terminal device 5 are taken as an example in the figure, terminal device 6 camps on LTE cell 6, and terminal device 5 camps on LTE cell 7). Specifically, the LTE cell 6 corresponds to the access network device 4, which may be understood that the access network device 4 provides the LTE cell 6, and provides a communication service for the terminal device 6 through the LTE cell 6. The LTE cell 7 corresponds to the access network device 5, and it is understood that the access network device 5 provides the LTE cell 7, and provides communication services for the terminal device 5 through the LTE cell 7. Optionally, the LTE cell 6 and the LTE cell 7 are cells of the same system, but the center frequency points of the downlink reference signals of the LTE cell 6 and the LTE cell 7 are different, and the frequency ranges of the LTE cell 6 and the LTE cell 7 are overlapped. For example, the frequency range of the LTE cell 6 is 2010MHz to 2020MHz, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal is 2015MHz; the frequency range of the LTE cell 7 is 2010 MHz-2040 MHz, and the central frequency point of the downlink reference signal is 2020MHz. In the embodiment of the present application, cells with the same system but different center frequency points of the downlink reference signals may be referred to as common-system different-frequency cells; that is, the LTE cell 6 and the LTE cell 7 are the same-system different-frequency cells. Two cells with the same center frequency point of the downlink reference signal may be referred to as the same frequency cell.

In the system shown in fig. 1B, the access network device 4 may send signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal devices 6) camped in the LTE cell 6 through the LTE cell 6, and the access network device 5 may send signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal devices 5) camped in the LTE cell 7 through the LTE cell 7. When the access network device 5 sends a signal to the terminal device 5 through the LTE cell 7, the terminal device 6 may receive the signal sent by the access network device 5, which may interfere with the communication between the terminal device 6 and the access network device 4, due to the frequency ranges of the LTE cell 6 and the LTE cell 7 overlapping, so that the signal may be regarded as an interfering signal. In addition, in order to ensure that the access network device 4 can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 6, the terminal device 6 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the access LTE cell 6. In other embodiments, the two cells provided by the access network device 5 may also be NR cells, where the two NR cells are identical heterogeneous cells. In this case, the formation of the near-far interference to the terminal device 6 may refer to the above-described manner, and will not be described herein.

Referring to fig. 2A, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. In fig. 2A, an access network device 3 and one or more terminal devices (in the figure, terminal device 3, terminal device 4 are taken as an example, terminal device 3 camping on LTE cell 2, terminal device 4 camping on NR cell 2) are included. Specifically, the LTE cell 2 corresponds to the access network device 3, which can be understood that the access network device 3 provides the LTE cell 2, and provides a communication service for the terminal device 3 through the LTE cell 2. The NR cell 2 corresponds to the access network device 3, and it is understood that the access network device 3 provides the NR cell 2 and provides a communication service for the terminal device 4 through the NR cell 2.

In the system shown in fig. 2A, the access network device 3 may send signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 3) camped on the LTE cell 2 through the LTE cell 2, and the access network device 3 may send signals to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 4) camped on the NR cell 2 through the NR cell 2. When the access network device 3 transmits a signal to the terminal device 4 through the NR cell 2, the terminal device 3 may receive the signal transmitted by the access network device 3, which causes interference to communication between the terminal device 3 and the access network device 3 through the LTE cell 2, so that the signal may be regarded as an interference signal. In addition, in order to ensure that the access network device 3 can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 3, the terminal device 3 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the access LTE cell 2.

Referring to fig. 2B, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. In fig. 2B, an access network device 6 and one or more terminal devices (terminal device 7, terminal device 8 are taken as an example in the figure, terminal device 7 camps on NR cell 3, terminal device 8 camps on NR cell 4) are included. Specifically, the NR cell 3 corresponds to the access network device 7, and it is understood that the access network device 6 provides the NR cell 3 and provides a communication service for the terminal device 7 through the NR cell 3. The NR cell 4 corresponds to the access network device 6, and it is understood that the access network device 6 provides the NR cell 4 and provides communication services for the terminal device 8 through the NR cell 4. The NR cells 3 and 4 are cells of the same system, but the central frequency points of the downlink reference signals of the NR cells 3 and 4 are different, and the frequency ranges of the NR cells 3 and 4 overlap. NR cell 3 and NR cell 4 are identical different frequency cells.

In the system shown in fig. 2B, the access network device 6 may send signals through the NR cell 3 to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 7) camped in the NR cell 3, and the access network device 6 may send signals through the NR cell 4 to one or more terminal devices (illustrated as terminal device 8) camped in the NR cell 4. When the access network device 6 transmits a signal to the terminal device 8 through the NR cell 4, the terminal device 7 may receive the signal transmitted by the access network device 6, which signal causes interference to the communication between the terminal device 7 and the access network device 6 through the NR cell 3, so that the signal may be regarded as an interference signal. In addition, in order to ensure that the access network device 6 can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 7, the terminal device 7 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the access NR cell 3.

In other embodiments, the two cells provided by the access network device 6 may also be LTE cells, where the two LTE cells are different frequency cells in the same system. In this case, the formation of the near-far interference to the terminal device 7 may refer to the above-described manner, and will not be described herein.

It should be noted that, the wireless communication system mentioned in the embodiments of the present application includes, but is not limited to: narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (enhanced data rate for GSM evolution, EDGE), wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), code division multiple access 2000 (code division multiple access, CDMA 2000), time division synchronous code division multiple access (time division-synchronization code division multiple access, TD-SCDMA), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE), fifth generation mobile communication (5 th-generation, 5G) systems, and future mobile communication systems.

The access network device involved in the embodiment of the present application may be a Base Station (BS), where the BS may provide communication services to multiple terminal devices, and the multiple Base stations may also provide communication services to the same terminal device. In an embodiment of the present application, a base station is a device deployed in a radio access network to provide a wireless communication function for a terminal device. The base station device may be a base station, a relay station or an access point. The base station may be a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (Global System for Mobile Communication, GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) network, an NB (NodeB) in wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA), or an eNB or eNodeB (Evolutional NodeB) in long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE). The base station device may also be a radio controller in the context of a cloud radio access network (Cloud Radio Access Network, CRAN). The base station device may also be a base station device in a future 5G network or an access network device in a future evolved PLMN network. The base station device may also be a wearable device or an in-vehicle device, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the access network device may be the access network device; or may be a device, such as a system-on-a-chip, capable of supporting the access network equipment to perform this function, which may be installed in the access network equipment.

The terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a terminal, and may be a device having a wireless transceiver function. The terminal device according to the embodiments of the present application may include various User Equipment (UE) having a wireless communication function, an access terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a UE terminal, a wireless communication device, a UE agent, or a UE apparatus, etc. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal may be the terminal; or may be a device, such as a chip system, capable of supporting the terminal to perform the function, which may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Some concepts related to the embodiments of the present application are described below.

The communication standard (or simply referred to as standard) is a network standard adopted by the mobile terminal for data communication. For example, for the second generation mobile communication technology (the 2nd generation mobile communication technology,2G), the communication standard includes GSM, CDMA. For the 3G third generation mobile communication technology (the 3rd generation mobile communication technology,3G), the communication system includes Time Division synchronous code Division multiple access (TD-SCDMA), WCDMA, CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000). For the fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation mobile communication technology,4G), the communication modes include two modes of a long term evolution (longterm evolution, time-DivisionDuplex, LTE-TDD) and a long term evolution (LTE-FDD), where LTE-TDD is also called TD-LTE. For the fifth generation mobile communication technology (the 5th generation mobile communication technology,5G), the communication system includes a non-independent Networking (NSA) and an independent networking (SA). In the embodiment of the present application, two adjacent cells may support different communication schemes on the same frequency band.

In the evolution process of mobile communication, for example, in the evolution process from 4G to 5G, LTE and NR co-frequency networking often occur in a communication system. Several common network architectures are described below.

Referring to fig. 3, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The coverage area shown in fig. 3 may include a plurality of communication cells corresponding to fig. 1A and 2A, where the communication cells adopt a communication system of LTE, and the LTE network is full coverage. In the evolution process, selecting an access network device where part of communication cells are located to newly establish a cell adopting an NR communication mode (called NR cell for short), and sharing and using part of frequency resources by the newly established NR cell and the cell (called LTE cell for short) adopting an LTE communication mode which is covered by the newly established NR cell through the function of dynamic spectrum sharing (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, DSS). In the subsequent evolution process, the deployment range of the communication system cell of NR is gradually increased. It should be noted that, a hexagonal area in fig. 3 represents a coverage area of a cell, and the same reference numerals in the following figures refer to the description. It should be noted that, the network architecture composed of the adjacent NR cells supporting DSS and the LTE cells not supporting DSS in fig. 3 may refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A and fig. 2A. Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. A plurality of communication cells are included in the area shown in fig. 4, wherein part of the communication cells adopt an LTE communication scheme. In the evolution process, selecting a part of LTE communication system cells to be located in access network equipment to newly establish NR cells, wherein the newly established NR cells and the same covered LTE cells share and use part of frequency resources through the function of DSS. The access network equipment where other communication cells are located directly establishes an NR system cell so that the NR network is in full coverage. In the subsequent evolution process, the communication system cell deployment range of LTE is gradually reduced. It should be noted that, the network architecture composed of the adjacent LTE cell supporting DSS and the NR cell not supporting DSS in fig. 4 may refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A and fig. 2A.

Referring to fig. 5, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The area shown in fig. 5 includes a plurality of communication cells, and among the communication cells, the communication cell in the left area adopts the communication scheme of LTE, and the communication cell in the right area adopts the communication scheme of NR. Through the evolution NR of the LTE back-off spectrum mode, namely, the frequency occupation range of the communication system of the LTE is gradually reduced, and the frequency occupation range of the communication system of the NR is gradually increased. It should be noted that, the network architecture formed by the neighboring LTE cells and NR cells in fig. 5 may refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A and fig. 2A.

Referring to fig. 6A-6B, schematic diagrams of further network architectures are provided according to embodiments of the present application. Within the area shown in fig. 6A-6B are a plurality of communication cells deploying a fully covered LTE network and NR network by DSS functionality. However, in some implementation scenarios, after some functions of the access network device are turned on, the LTE network may be dynamically selected to be turned off (which may be understood as a communication scheme that does not use LTE, and may be shown in fig. 6A) or the NR network may be turned off (which may be understood as a communication scheme that does not use NR, and may be shown in fig. 6B) based on the load, so as to form a scenario in which LTE discontinuous flower arrangement or NR discontinuous flower arrangement occurs in a part of the area, a part of the access network device, or a part of the time. It should be noted that, the network architecture composed of the adjacent LTE cells supporting DSS and the NR cells not supporting DSS in fig. 6A may refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A and fig. 2A. The network architecture composed of adjacent NR cells supporting DSS and LTE cells not supporting DSS in fig. 6B may refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 1A and 2A.

In the boundary area of LTE and NR same-frequency networking, terminal equipment is easily affected by near-far interference. The reason for the formation of the near-far effect is described below. Referring to fig. 7, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The network architecture shown in fig. 7 may be exemplified by the network architecture shown in fig. 1A, for example. The network architecture shown in fig. 7 includes an antenna 1 of an access network device (refer to the access network device 1 in fig. 1A) and an antenna 2 of the access network device (refer to the access network device 2 in fig. 1A), and a terminal device 1 (refer to the terminal device 1 in fig. 1A). Wherein, antenna 1 provides communication signals for terminal equipment accessing to the LTE cell, and antenna 2 provides communication signals for terminal equipment accessing to the NR cell. The access network devices to which the antenna 1 and the antenna 2 belong may be the same access network device or may be different access network devices.

In the network architecture shown in fig. 7, both the LTE cell and the NR cell are located in the frequency band F1, and the terminal device 1 is originally accessed in the LTE cell. Antenna 1 transmits signals (i.e., service signals) to terminal devices 1 in an access LTE cell through an LTE cell, and antenna 2 may transmit signals to one or more terminal devices in the access NR cell through an NR cell. When the antenna 2 transmits a signal to one or more terminal devices through the NR cell, the terminal device 1 may receive the signal transmitted by the antenna 2, where the signal is a neighboring cell signal received by the terminal device 1, and the signal causes interference to communication between the terminal device 1 and the antenna 1, so that the signal may be regarded as an interference signal. In the process that the terminal device 1 moves from the coverage of the LTE cell to the coverage of the NR cell, the service signal sent by the LTE cell and received by the terminal device 1 are weaker, and the service signal (which may be understood as an interference signal) sent by the NR cell is stronger.

In the LTE and NR communication systems, the common-frequency measurement and the handover in the same communication system ensure that the mobile terminal can be always located in the cell of the strongest signal in the same communication system, so that the terminal device cannot perform the inter-system common-frequency measurement without additional power consumption. The terminal device will remain camped on the LTE cell until a certain condition is met (e.g., the signal quality of the serving cell is higher than a preset value). Compared with the terminal equipment, the LTE cell where the terminal equipment is camped is a far point, the adjacent NR cell is a near point, and a far-near effect is caused, namely the strength of a service signal provided by the LTE cell is weaker than the strength of a neighbor signal of the NR cell, and the neighbor signal of the NR cell can cause stronger interference to the service signal received by the terminal equipment. In addition, in order to ensure that the antenna 1 of the LTE cell can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 1, the terminal device 1 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the LTE cell.

The common carrier network for providing communication is a multi-frequency networking, when the common frequency signal received by the terminal equipment is poor, the measurement of different frequency/different system is triggered and switched to other frequency points, so that the problem of near-far effect of the terminal can be relieved after the measurement and switching of different frequency/different system. Referring to fig. 8, a schematic diagram of still another network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. LTE cell 1, LTE cell 2, LTE cell 3 and NR cell 1 in the network architecture shown in fig. 8, and terminal device 1. Wherein, LTE cell 1 and NR cell 1 are both located in frequency band F1, E cell 2 and LTE cell 3 are both located in frequency band F2. The terminal equipment accesses the LTE cell 1. The communication signals sent by the LTE cell 2, the LTE cell 3 and the NR cell 1 are all neighbor signals for the terminal device 1, but since the signals sent by the LTE cell 2 and the LTE cell 3 are not in the same frequency band, the signals sent by the LTE cell 2 and the LTE cell 3 are not interference signals for the terminal device 1; the communication signal transmitted through NR cell 1 is in the same frequency band as that transmitted through LTE cell 1, and thus the communication signal transmitted through NR cell 1 is an interference signal to terminal device 1.

In the process that the terminal equipment 1 moves from the coverage of the LTE cell 1 to the coverage of the NR cell 1, the service signal sent by the LTE cell 1 and received by the terminal equipment 1 becomes weaker, and the neighbor signal (which can be understood as an interference signal) sent by the NR cell 1 becomes stronger. On the same frequency border shown in fig. 8, the signal quality of the NR cell 1 received by the terminal device 1 is stronger than the signal quality of the LTE cell 1, which will trigger the near-far effect. In this case, since the signal quality of the serving cell (LTE cell 1) is higher than or equal to the preset value, the terminal device 1 will remain camped on the LTE cell 1, and in this area to the right of the same-frequency boundary, the intra-system inter-frequency/inter-system handover boundary, the terminal device 1 will be continuously affected by the near-far effect. On the intra-system inter-frequency/inter-system handover boundary in fig. 8, the signal quality of the LTE cell 1) received by the terminal device 1 is lower than a preset value, and the access network device (the access network device corresponding to the LTE cell 1) will trigger the terminal device 1 to perform intra-system inter-frequency/inter-system handover. The terminal device 1 may illustratively be handed over into the LTE cell 3. After the handover, since LTE cell 3 and NR cell 1 are located in different frequency bands, terminal device 1 will no longer be affected by the near-far effect.

Similar to the case of LTE and NR co-frequency networking, adjacent co-mode inter-frequency cells, but in the case of overlapping frequency ranges, terminal devices are also susceptible to near-far interference. Taking LTE cell 6 and LTE cell 7 in fig. 1B as an example, in the process of performing the same frequency measurement by terminal device 6, since the center frequency points of the downlink reference signals of LTE cell 6 and LTE cell 7 are different, terminal device 6 cannot detect the downlink reference signal of LTE cell 7. The terminal device 6 will remain camped on the LTE cell 6 until a certain condition is met (e.g. the signal quality of the LTE cell 6 is higher than a preset value). Compared with the terminal equipment 6, the self-camped LTE cell 6 is a far point, the adjacent LTE cell 7 is a near point, and a far-near effect is caused, namely the strength of a service signal provided by the LTE cell 6 is weaker than the strength of a neighbor signal of the LTE cell 7, and the neighbor signal of the LTE cell 7 can cause stronger interference to the service signal received by the terminal equipment 6. In addition, in order to ensure that the LTE cell 6 can normally receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 6, the terminal device 6 increases the power of the self-transmitted signal, so that the uplink signal sent by the terminal device 6 interferes with the uplink signals sent by other terminal devices in the LTE cell 6.

The following describes a cell measurement method provided in the embodiments of the present application based on the network architecture, the terminal device, and the access network device described in the foregoing. For ease of understanding, the network architecture shown in fig. 1A is taken as an example. In the embodiment of the present application, an LTE cell 4 (refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 9) will be newly built in the NR cell 1. The LTE cell 4 occupies part of the time-frequency resources originally belonging to the NR cell 1, and transmits a downlink reference signal to the terminal device. In the process that the terminal device 1 performs the same frequency measurement in the same communication system, the terminal device may detect the presence of the LTE cell 4 and the signal quality of the LTE cell 4 through the downlink reference signal sent by the LTE cell 4. The signal quality of the LTE cell 4 may be regarded as the signal quality of the NR cell 1, because part of the time-frequency resources of the original NR cell 1 occupied by the LTE cell 4 transmits the downlink reference signal.

In the case that the signal quality of the LTE cell 4 is higher than that of the LTE cell 1, the co-channel measurement report fed back by the terminal device to the first access network device will include information of the LTE cell 4. The signal quality of the LTE cell 4 is higher than that of the LTE cell 1, which indicates that the neighbor signal of the NR cell 1 with the same frequency and different system from the LTE cell 1 is stronger than the service signal of the LTE cell 1, which causes the problem of near-far interference.

Then, the access network device 1 can determine that the neighboring cell signal of the same-frequency heterogeneous system in the environment where the current mobile terminal is located is stronger than the service signal according to the information of the LTE cell 4 in the same-frequency measurement report. Then, the access network device 1 transfers the terminal device 1 to the same-mode different-frequency cell or the different-mode cell, so that the problem of near-far interference can be avoided.

Referring to fig. 10, a flowchart of a method for measuring a cell according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps. It should be noted that, the first access network device in the following description may be the access network device 1 in fig. 9, the first serving cell may be the LTE cell 1 in fig. 9, the virtual cell may be the LTE cell 4 in fig. 9, the second serving cell may be the NR cell 1 in fig. 9, and the terminal device may be the terminal device 1 in fig. 9. The serving cell is a cell that can provide services such as access, uplink and downlink data transmission for the terminal device, and may also be referred to as a normal cell or a cell. The virtual cell is a cell which only sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment, is convenient for the terminal equipment to carry out cell measurement, and does not provide access for the terminal equipment or serve uplink and downlink data transmission. The virtual cells may also be referred to as virtual cells, analog cells, etc. The above names are only used to distinguish between the two types of cells, and other names may also exist in the practical application process, and the embodiment is not limited.

S101, a first access network device sends first measurement control information to a terminal device through a first service cell.

The first serving cell is a communication cell to which the terminal device is currently accessed (or referred to as camping). In some embodiments, after the terminal device successfully accesses the first serving cell, the first access network device sends the first measurement control information to the terminal device through the first serving cell. It should be noted that, in the process that the terminal device camps on the first serving cell, the same-frequency measurement is continuously performed according to the first measurement control information, and the same-frequency measurement does not cause additional function consumption of the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the first measurement control information includes indication information therein, the indication information being used to indicate a type of the measurement event. By way of example, the types of measurement events may include an A1 event (indicating that the serving cell signal quality is above a certain threshold), an A2 event (indicating that the serving cell signal quality is below a certain threshold), an A3 event (indicating that the on-channel neighbor signal quality is above the serving cell signal quality), and so forth. In this embodiment of the present application, the first measurement control information includes indication information indicating an A3 event. That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to feed back the first measurement report to the first access network device when the signal quality of the same-frequency neighboring cell is higher than the signal quality of the serving cell. The signal quality may also be understood as signal strength, and the reference signal received power (Reference Signal Receiving Power, RSRP) of a cell may be a reference indicator of the signal quality. Other reference indicators may also be present for the signal quality, which is not limited in this application.

In some embodiments, the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. The downlink reference signal of the first serving cell and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same. In this way, the terminal device can be instructed to perform the same-frequency detection according to the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell, so that the terminal device can detect the virtual cell.

The frequency range of the virtual cell is included in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the second serving cell has a different format than the first serving cell (illustratively, corresponding to the case shown in fig. 9). Alternatively, the system of the second serving cell is the same as the system of the first serving cell, and the downlink reference signal of the second serving cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell (exemplary, corresponding to the case shown in fig. 1B).

And under the condition that the communication systems supported by the first service cells are different, the content contained in the first measurement control information is different. The two possible cases are described separately below.

In one possible scenario, the communication system supported by the first serving cell (or the virtual cell) is a communication system in LTE, and the communication system supported by the second serving cell is a communication system in NR. The first measurement control information may include a center frequency point and a measurement bandwidth of a downlink reference signal of the cell. The center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the cell is the same as the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell and the virtual cell, and the measurement bandwidth is the bandwidth of the virtual cell. Optionally, the bandwidth of the virtual cell is one of 1.4mhz,3mhz,5mhz,10mhz,15mhz, and 20mhz.

And determining a first frequency range according to the central frequency point and the measurement bandwidth of the downlink reference signal of the cell, wherein the first frequency range is the same as the frequency range of the virtual cell. Referring to fig. 11, a schematic diagram of frequency ranges of a first serving cell, a virtual cell, and a second serving cell according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The center frequency points of the downlink reference signals of the first service cell and the virtual cell are the same. The second serving cell has an overlapping portion with the frequency range of the first serving cell. Alternatively, the frequency ranges of the first serving cell and the second serving cell may be the same, for example, 2600MHz to 2620MHz. The frequency range of the first serving cell may also be different from the frequency range of the second serving cell, for example, the frequency range of the first serving cell is 2600MHz-2620MHz, and the frequency range of the second serving cell is 2600MHz-2640MHz.

In another possible scenario, the communication system supported by the first serving cell (or the virtual cell) is a communication system in NR, and the communication system supported by the second serving cell is a communication system in LTE. The first measurement control information may include a synchronization signal and a center frequency point of a downlink reference signal (may be specifically a demodulation reference signal (Demodulation Reference Signal, DMRS)) in a physical broadcast channel block (SSB). The center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB is the same as the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB of the first serving cell and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB of the virtual cell. Since the measurement bandwidth of the co-channel measurement is 20 Resource Blocks (RBs) in the NR, the first measurement control information may not need to include measurement bandwidth information. Optionally, the SSB of the virtual cell is 20 RBs, and the bandwidth of the virtual cell may have various values, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

And determining a first frequency range according to the central frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB, wherein the first frequency range is the same as the frequency range of the virtual cell. Referring to fig. 12, a schematic diagram of frequency ranges of a first serving cell, a virtual cell, and a second serving cell according to another embodiment of the present application is provided. The center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB of the first service cell is the same as the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB of the virtual cell. The second serving cell has an overlapping portion with the frequency range of the first serving cell. Alternatively, the frequency ranges of the first serving cell and the second serving cell may be the same, for example, 2600MHz to 2620MHz. The frequency range of the first serving cell may also be different from the frequency range of the second serving cell, for example, the frequency range of the second serving cell is 2600MHz-2620MHz, and the frequency range of the first serving cell is 2600MHz-2640MHz.

In some embodiments, the first access network device may generate the first measurement control information according to a center frequency point (possibly including a measurement bandwidth) of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell sent by the second access network device.

In some embodiments, when the second access network device constructs a virtual cell, the virtual cell may be constructed according to a center frequency point and a measurement bandwidth of a downlink reference signal of the first serving cell; or the virtual cell can be constructed according to the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal in the SSB of the first service cell.

S102, the second access network equipment sends signals to the terminal equipment through the virtual cell and the second service cell.

The virtual cell may be understood as a virtual cell or an analog cell constructed by the second access network device. The purpose of constructing the virtual cell is mainly to enable the terminal equipment to find the virtual cell and measure the signal quality of the virtual cell in the same frequency measurement process. For the terminal device, the existence of the virtual cell may approximately represent the existence of the second serving cell of the common-frequency heterogeneous system. The signal quality of the virtual cell may approximately represent the signal quality of the second serving cell of the common frequency differential system. The purpose of constructing the virtual cell is not to provide an access service (or referred to as a communication service) to the terminal device.

Specifically, the second access network device sends a downlink signal through the virtual cell, where the downlink signal includes the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. The downlink signal is to enable the terminal device to discover the virtual cell and to detect the signal quality of the virtual cell. In addition, the second access network device sends a communication signal through the second service cell, where the communication signal is used to provide communication services for other terminal devices accessing the second service cell.

For the terminal equipment accessing the first service cell, the signals sent by the second access network equipment through the virtual cell and the second service cell are neighbor cell signals. However, since the second serving cell is a heterogeneous communication cell (or a homogeneous heterogeneous frequency cell), in the same frequency measurement process, the terminal device cannot detect the signal sent by the second access network device through the second serving cell.

In some embodiments, the time-frequency resources occupied by the signal (e.g., downlink reference signal) sent by the second access network device through the virtual cell are different from the time-frequency resources occupied by the signal sent by the second serving cell. In this way, interference caused by the communication signal sent by the second serving cell to the downlink reference signal sent by the virtual cell can be avoided, so that the measurement result of the same-frequency measurement is affected.

Optionally, the second access network device sends, to a terminal device accessing the second serving cell, indication information through the second serving cell, where the indication information is used to indicate an available time-frequency resource of the terminal device accessing the second serving cell, and the available time-frequency resource is different from a time-frequency resource occupied by the downlink signal of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.

The indication mode of the indication information can comprise dynamic scheduling indication and semi-static resource indication. The dynamic scheduling indication means that the second access network device sends DCI (Downlink Control Information) information (i.e. understood as indication information) through a physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) in the second serving cell, where the DCI information is used to indicate an available time-frequency resource of the terminal device accessing the second serving cell, where the available time-frequency resource is different from a time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for sending the downlink signal. The semi-static resource indication refers to that the second access network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message (i.e. understood as indication information) in the second serving cell, where the RRC reconfiguration message is used to instruct the terminal device accessing the second serving cell to not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell to send the downlink signal. It should be noted that, the second access network device may adopt any indication manner, or may adopt different indication manners for different channels of the virtual cell.

In some embodiments, the virtual cell does not provide access services for the terminal device. In this way, the second access network device does not need to divide more time-frequency resources for the virtual cell to support the communication service of the terminal device, and can reserve as many time-frequency resources for the second service cell as possible for supporting the communication service of the terminal device accessing the second service cell.

The downlink signals transmitted through the virtual cells are further described below.

In one possible implementation, the communication system supported by the virtual cell is a communication system in LTE. The downlink signal includes a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. The downlink reference signals include Cell-reference signals (Cell-specific Reference Signal, CRS). The CRS is used for the terminal device to detect the signal quality of the virtual cell.

Optionally, the downlink signal further includes one or more of a primary synchronization signal (Primary Synchronization Signal, PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (Secondary Synchronization Signal, SSS), a physical broadcast channel (Physical Broadcast Channel, PBCH) and system information block (System Information Block, SIB) 1 information. Wherein PSS, SSS are used for terminal devices to discover (or refer to as detected) virtual cells. The physical broadcast channel is used for the terminal device to detect the system information block. Optionally, the system information block carries indication information (for example, a "Barred" identifier), where the indication information is used to indicate that the virtual cell does not provide an access service for the terminal device.

Wherein the system information block contains system information, there may be multiple system information blocks in a cell, and the information carried by these system information blocks are different, for example SIB1. The SIB1 mainly carries configuration information of some cells, for example, information related to random access, information related to PDCCH, information related to other information blocks, information of a UE accessing a cell, information of a cell, and the like.

Optionally, the second access network device only sends PSS, SSS, CRS through the virtual cell, so as to achieve the purpose that the virtual cell does not provide access service for the terminal.

In one possible implementation, the communication system supported by the virtual cell is the communication system in NR. The downlink reference signal in the downlink signals is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), the downlink signals are a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block (SSB), and the SSB includes the DMRS. Wherein SSB is used for terminal devices to discover (or refer to as detecting) virtual cells, and to detect the signal quality of virtual cells. Specifically, the radio frequency of the terminal equipment searches the PSS and SSS in the SSB at the SSB center frequency point to find the cell, and detects the signal quality of the virtual cell through the demodulation reference signal in the SSB.

It should be noted that, there is no limitation in the execution sequence of step S101 and step S102.

S103, the terminal equipment measures the neighbor cell signals according to the first measurement control information.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine, according to the first measurement control information, a measurement event and a first frequency range in which the neighbor cell signal to be measured is located. Optionally, the terminal device measures the neighbor cell signal in the first frequency range, determines the measured cell identifier and the signal quality of the neighbor cell, and obtains one or more measurement results.

S104, the terminal equipment generates a first measurement report according to the measurement result.

The first measurement report includes information of one or more cells detected by the terminal device, and the quality of downlink reference signals of the one or more cells is higher than that of the first serving cell. In some embodiments, the first measurement report includes information of cells having quality higher than that of the first serving cell.

In some embodiments, the first measurement control information includes indication information indicating a maximum value (e.g., N) of the number of neighbor cells in the first measurement report. Then, the first measurement report contains information of at most N cells. The signal quality of the N cells involved is stronger than the signal quality of the remaining measured neighbors.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first measurement report indicates a quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. The first measurement report includes a measurement result of the virtual cell, which indicates that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell. It should be noted that, since the part of the time-frequency resources of the original second serving cell occupied by the virtual cell transmits the downlink signal, the signal quality of the virtual cell may be regarded as the signal quality of the second serving cell. In this case, the signal transmitted through the second serving cell will affect the communication between the terminal device and the first network device, and the problem of near-far interference is easily caused.

S105, the terminal equipment sends the first measurement report to the first access network equipment.

S106, after the first access network equipment receives the first measurement report from the terminal equipment, the first access network equipment transfers the terminal equipment to a third service cell under the condition that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than that of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell.

The system of the third serving cell is the same as that of the first serving cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell, or the system of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell. That is, the third serving cell and the first serving cell are the same-mode different-frequency cell or different-mode cell. The third serving cell may be the second serving cell or another serving cell.

Optionally, the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, which may be understood that the first measurement report includes information of the virtual cell, that is, the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, and the terminal device reports the information of the virtual cell, where the first measurement report may implicitly indicate that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell.

In some embodiments, other situations may exist on the premise that the first access network device migrates the terminal device to the third serving cell. Some possible preconditions are described below.

Optionally, in a case that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, and the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signals of other cells included in the first measurement report, the first access network device migrates the terminal device to a third serving cell. The situation shows that the adjacent cell signal of the second service cell which is different from the first service cell in the same frequency mode is the strongest in the detected adjacent cell signals, the adjacent cell signal of the second service cell has stronger interference to the service signal of the first service cell, and the problem of near-far interference can be easily caused under the situation.

Optionally, when the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell, and the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than a preset value, the first access network device migrates the terminal device to a third serving cell. Optionally, the preset value may be a preset relative threshold value of signal quality of the camping cell, or may be a preset absolute threshold value. The above situation shows that the signal quality of the virtual cell is strong, the interference to the service signal of the first service cell is strong, and the problem of near-far interference is extremely easy to be caused in the situation.

Optionally, the migration of the terminal device to the third serving cell by the first access network device may be: the first access network device switches the terminal device to the third service cell. Alternatively, the manner may be for the first access network device to redirect the terminal device to the third serving cell.

Next, some possible implementations of the first access network device migrating the terminal device to the third serving cell are described.

In some implementations, the first access network device sends second measurement control information to the terminal device, where the second measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of the third serving cell; the first access network device receives a second measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the second measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the third service cell; and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report. It should be noted that, the second measurement report includes information of one or more common mode different frequency cells or different mode cells that meet the measurement condition. And the first access network equipment selects the third service cell from the one or more common mode different frequency cells or different mode cells.

In some implementations, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, where the cell identities of the one or more serving cells include a cell identity of the third serving cell, and the first access network device migrates the terminal device to the third serving cell, including: the first access network device selects the third service cell from one or more stored service cells adjacent to the first service cell; and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell. Alternatively, the cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell may be stored in a neighbor list. The cell identity may be a physical cell identity (Physical Cell Identifier, PCI).

Next, some possible implementations of the first access network device determining that the first measurement report contains information of the virtual cell are described.

In some implementations, the first access network device stores a cell identification of the virtual cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identification of the virtual cell. Optionally, the first access network device may store a virtual cell list, where the virtual cell list includes cell identifiers of a plurality of preset virtual cells.

In some implementations, the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, the first measurement result includes a cell identity of the virtual cell, and the cell identity of the virtual cell is different from the cell identities of the one or more serving cells. Alternatively, the cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell may be stored in a neighbor list. In other words, the neighbor cell list stores the preset cell identifier of one or more cells which can support the communication service of the terminal device and are adjacent to the first service cell. The cell identity is different from the cell identity of the one or more serving cells, indicating that the virtual cell is not a serving cell.

It should be noted that, in the above embodiment, taking the network architecture corresponding to fig. 1A as an example, the implementation steps of a cell measurement method provided in the embodiment of the present application are described.

In other embodiments, the method may also be applied to the network architecture corresponding to fig. 1B. In the network architecture shown in fig. 1B, an LTE cell 8 is newly built in the LTE cell 7 (see the network architecture shown in fig. 13). The LTE cell 8 may be regarded as a virtual cell described in the foregoing, the LTE cell 6 may be regarded as a first serving cell described in the foregoing, the LTE cell 7 may be regarded as a second serving cell described in the foregoing, and the terminal device 6 may be regarded as a terminal device described in the foregoing. LTE cell 6 corresponds to access network device 4, and LTE cell 7 each correspond to access network device 5.

In other embodiments, the method may also be applied to the network architecture corresponding to fig. 2A. In the network architecture shown in fig. 2A, an LTE cell 5 is newly built in an NR cell 2 (see the network architecture shown in fig. 14). The LTE cell 5 may be regarded as a virtual cell described in the above, the LTE cell 2 may be regarded as a first serving cell described in the above, the NR cell 2 may be regarded as a second serving cell described in the above, and the terminal device 3 may be regarded as a terminal device described in the above. LTE cell 5, LTE cell 2 and NR cell 2 all correspond to access network device 3. The operations performed by the first access network device (i.e. access network device 1) and the second access network device (i.e. access network device 2) described above are performed by the access network device 3.

That is, in some embodiments, the access network device 3 also transmits downlink signals through the virtual cell. The access network device 3 also transmits communication signals via the second serving cell.

In some embodiments, the access network device 3 further sends, to a terminal device accessing the second serving cell, indication information through the second serving cell, where the indication information is used to indicate an available time-frequency resource of the terminal device accessing the second serving cell, where the available time-frequency resource is different from a time-frequency resource occupied by a downlink signal sent by the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the downlink signal sent by the virtual cell.

In other embodiments, the method may also be applied to the network architecture corresponding to fig. 2B. In the network architecture shown in fig. 2B, an NR cell 5 is newly established in the NR cell 4 (see the network architecture shown in fig. 15). Wherein the NR cell 5 can be regarded as a virtual cell introduced in the above, the NR cell 3 can be regarded as a first serving cell introduced in the above, the NR cell 4 can be regarded as a second serving cell introduced in the above, and the terminal device 7 can be regarded as a terminal device introduced in the above. NR cell 4, NR cell 3 and NR cell 5 each correspond to an access network device 6. The access network device 6 needs to perform not only the operations performed by the first access network device described above, i.e. the access network device 1, but also the operations performed by the second access network device described above, i.e. the access network device 2.

The specific implementation of these embodiments may refer to the description in the foregoing, and will not be repeated here.

The above describes a cell measurement method provided in the embodiments of the present application. Next, application scenarios of the embodiments of the present application are described with respect to several LTE and NR co-frequency networking cases listed in the foregoing.

For the network architecture shown in fig. 3, the NR cells supporting DSS are prone to near-far interference with neighboring LTE cells. Therefore, the virtual cell 1 (refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 16) can be deployed in an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell supporting DSS, and the communication system of the virtual cell 1 is the communication system of NR. That is, an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell supporting a DSS may be regarded as the second serving cell described in the above, and an NR cell supporting a DSS adjacent to an LTE cell may be regarded as the first serving cell described in the above.

For the network architecture shown in fig. 4, the LTE cells supporting DSS and the neighboring NR cells are prone to near-far interference. Therefore, the virtual cell 2 (see the network architecture shown in fig. 17) can be deployed in an NR cell adjacent to an LTE cell supporting DSS, and the communication system of the virtual cell 2 is that of LTE. That is, an LTE cell supporting DSS adjacent to an NR cell may be regarded as a first serving cell introduced in the above, and an NR cell adjacent to an LTE cell supporting DSS may be regarded as a second serving cell introduced in the above.

For the network architecture shown in fig. 5, neighboring LTE cells and NR cells are prone to near-far interference. Therefore, the virtual cell 1 can be deployed in an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell, and the communication scheme of the virtual cell 1 is the communication scheme of NR. The virtual cell 2 is deployed in an NR cell adjacent to the LTE cell, and the communication scheme of the virtual cell 2 is that of LTE (see the network architecture shown in fig. 18). That is, for the virtual cell 1, the LTE cell adjacent to the NR cell may be regarded as the second serving cell described in the above, and the NR cell adjacent to the LTE cell may be regarded as the first serving cell described in the above. For the virtual cell 2, an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell may be regarded as a first serving cell described in the above, and an NR cell adjacent to an LTE cell may be regarded as a second serving cell described in the above.

For the network architecture shown in fig. 6A, the NR cell is prone to near-far interference with neighboring LTE cells supporting DSS. Therefore, the virtual cell 2 (refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 19) can be deployed in an NR cell adjacent to an LTE cell supporting DSS, and the communication system of the virtual cell 2 is that of LTE. That is, an NR cell adjacent to an LTE cell supporting a DSS may be regarded as the second serving cell described in the above, and an LTE cell supporting a DSS adjacent to an NR cell may be regarded as the first serving cell described in the above.

For the network architecture shown in fig. 6B, the LTE cell is prone to near-far interference with neighboring DSS-supporting NR cells. Therefore, the virtual cell 1 (refer to the network architecture shown in fig. 20) can be deployed in an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell supporting DSS, and the communication system of the virtual cell 1 is the communication system of NR. That is, an LTE cell adjacent to an NR cell supporting a DSS may be regarded as the second serving cell described in the above, and an NR cell supporting a DSS adjacent to an LTE cell may be regarded as the first serving cell described in the above.

In order to implement the functions in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application, the first access network device and the second access network device may include a hardware structure, a software module, and implement the functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Some of the functions described above may be implemented in a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module.

Referring to fig. 21, a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The communication device 210 may be an access network device, a device in the access network device, or a device that can be used in a matching manner with a terminal device. The communication apparatus 210 includes a transmission unit 2101, a reception unit 2102, and a migration unit 2103, wherein: the sending unit 2101 is configured to send, to a terminal device through a first serving cell, first measurement control information, where the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, and a center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell is the same as a center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. The frequency range of the virtual cell is included in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the communication device, or the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of a second access network device. Specifically, the operation performed by the transmission unit 2101 may be described with reference to step S101 in the method illustrated in fig. 10.

The receiving unit 2102 is configured to receive a first measurement report from the terminal device, where the first measurement report indicates a quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell. Specifically, the operation performed by the receiving unit 2102 may refer to the description in step S105 in the method shown in fig. 10.

The migration unit 2103 is configured to migrate the terminal device to a third serving cell in case that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell. The system of the third serving cell is the same as that of the first serving cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell, or the system of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell. Specifically, the operation performed by the migration unit 2103 may be described with reference to step S106 in the method shown in fig. 10.

In some embodiments, the migration unit 2103 is specifically configured to: transmitting second measurement control information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell; receiving a second measurement report from the terminal device, the second measurement report indicating a quality of a downlink reference signal of the third serving cell; and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report.

In some embodiments, the communication device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, where the cell identities of the one or more serving cells include the cell identity of the third serving cell, and the migration unit 2103 is specifically configured to: selecting the third serving cell from one or more stored serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell; and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell.

In some embodiments, the communication device stores a cell identification of the virtual cell, and the first measurement result includes the cell identification of the virtual cell.

In some embodiments, the communication device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, the first measurement result includes a cell identity of the virtual cell, and the cell identity of the virtual cell is different from the cell identity of the one or more serving cells.

In some embodiments, the virtual cell does not provide access services for the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the second serving cell having a different format than the first serving cell includes: the system supported by the first service cell is a system in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the system supported by the second service cell is a system in new wireless NR; or the system supported by the first service cell is the system in NR, and the system supported by the second service cell is the system in LTE.

In some embodiments, the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the communication device, and the transmitting unit 2101 is further configured to: and transmitting a downlink signal of the virtual cell, wherein the downlink signal comprises the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.

In some embodiments, the downlink reference signals include cell reference signals, CRSs.

In some embodiments, the downlink signal further comprises one or more of PSS, SSS and a system information block comprising indication information indicating that the virtual cell does not provide access services for the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the downlink reference signal is a DMRS, the downlink signal is an SSB, and the SSB includes the DMRS.

In some embodiments, the sending unit 2101 is further configured to: transmitting indication information to terminal equipment accessed to the second service cell through the second service cell; the indication information is used for indicating available time-frequency resources of the terminal equipment accessing the second service cell, wherein the available time-frequency resources are different from time-frequency resources occupied by the downlink signals of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.

It should be noted that the operations performed by the respective units of the communication apparatus shown in fig. 21 may be related to the above-described method embodiment. And will not be described in detail herein. The above units may be implemented in hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software. In one embodiment, the functions of the transmitting unit 2101, the receiving unit 2102 and the migrating unit 2103 in the foregoing may be implemented by one or more processors in the communication apparatus 210.

With the communication device shown in fig. 21, the communication device may determine that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell according to the first measurement report, which may cause a problem of near-far interference. In this case, the communication device migrates the terminal device to the third server cell, so that the terminal device can be prevented from being interfered by far and near.

Referring to fig. 22, a schematic structural diagram of still another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The communication device 220 may be an access network device, a device in the access network device, or a device that can be used in a matching manner with a terminal device. Or may be a chip, a system of chips, or a processor, etc. that supports the access network device to implement the above method. The communication device 220 may be used to implement the method described in the above method embodiments, and reference may be made in particular to the description of the above method embodiments.

The communication device 220 may include one or more processors 2201. The processor 2201 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor, etc. The processor 2201 may be configured to control a communication apparatus (e.g., an access network device chip, etc.), execute a software program, and process data of the software program.

Optionally, the communications device 220 may include one or more memories 2202, on which instructions 2204 may be stored, which may be executed on the processor 2201, to cause the communications device 220 to perform the methods described in the method embodiments above. Optionally, the memory 2202 may also store data therein. The processor 2201 and the memory 2202 may be provided separately or may be integrated.

Optionally, the communication device 220 may further include a transceiver 2205, an antenna 2206. The transceiver 2205 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver circuit, or the like, for implementing a transceiver function. The transceiver 2205 may include a receiver, which may be referred to as a receiver or a receiving circuit, etc., for implementing a receiving function; the transmitter may be referred to as a transmitter or a transmitting circuit, etc., for implementing a transmitting function.

In one implementation, the processor 2201 is configured to:

and sending, by the transceiver 2205, first measurement control information to a terminal device through a first serving cell, where the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, and center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell and the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same. The frequency range of the virtual cell is included in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the communication device, or the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of a second access network device.

A first measurement report is received from the terminal device via transceiver 2205, the first measurement report indicating a quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.

And under the condition that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than that of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell, migrating the terminal equipment to a third service cell. The system of the third serving cell is the same as that of the first serving cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell, or the system of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell.

Operations performed by the processor 2201 may be related to the method embodiments described above. And will not be described in detail herein.

In another possible design, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit, or an interface circuit. The transceiver circuitry, interface or interface circuitry for implementing the receive and transmit functions may be separate or may be integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit may be used for reading and writing codes/data, or the transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit may be used for transmitting or transferring signals.

In yet another possible design, the processor 2201 may have instructions 2203 stored therein, where the instructions 2203 run on the processor 2201, to cause the communication device 220 to perform the method described in the method embodiments above. The instructions 2203 may be solidified in the processor 2201, in which case the processor 2201 may be implemented in hardware.

In yet another possible design, the communication device 220 may include circuitry that may implement the functions of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

The processors and transceivers described herein may be implemented on integrated circuits (integrated circuit, ICs), analog ICs, radio frequency integrated circuits RFICs, mixed signal ICs, application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), printed circuit boards (printed circuit board, PCB), electronic devices, and the like.

The communication apparatus in the above embodiment description may be an access point or a station, but the scope of the communication apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the communication apparatus may not be limited by fig. 22. The communication means may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the communication device may be:

(1) A stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or a system-on-a-chip or subsystem;

(2) A set of one or more ICs, optionally including storage means for storing data, instructions;

(3) An ASIC, such as a Modem (Modem);

(4) Modules that may be embedded within other devices;

(5) A receiver, an intelligent terminal, a wireless device, a handset, a mobile unit, a vehicle-mounted device, a cloud device, an artificial intelligent device, and the like;

(6) Others, and so on.

For the case where the communication device may be a chip or a chip system, reference may be made to the schematic structural diagram of the chip shown in fig. 23. The chip 2300 shown in fig. 23 includes a processor 2301 and an interface 2302. Wherein the number of processors 2301 may be one or more, and the number of interfaces 2302 may be a plurality.

For the chip to be used to implement the functions of the first access network device in the embodiment of the present application:

the interface 2302 is configured to send, to a terminal device through a first serving cell, first measurement control information, where the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, and center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell and the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same. The frequency range of the virtual cell is included in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell; the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell; the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the first access network device, or the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the second access network device.

The interface 2302 receives a first measurement report from the terminal device, the first measurement report indicating a quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.

The processor 2301 is configured to migrate the terminal device to a third serving cell if the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell. The system of the third serving cell is the same as that of the first serving cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell, or the system of the third serving cell is different from that of the first serving cell.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory 2303, the memory 2303 being used for storing program instructions and data necessary for the communication device.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical block) and steps (steps) described in connection with the embodiments herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation is not to be understood as beyond the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which when executed by a computer performs the functions of any of the method embodiments described above.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the functions of any of the method embodiments described above.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that: the first, second, etc. numbers referred to in this application are merely for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope, and order of the embodiments of the present application.

The correspondence relationship shown in each table in the present application may be configured or predefined. The values of the information in each table are merely examples, and may be configured as other values, which are not limited in this application. In the case of the correspondence between the configuration information and each parameter, it is not necessarily required to configure all the correspondence shown in each table. For example, in the table in the present application, the correspondence shown by some rows may not be configured. For another example, appropriate morphing adjustments, e.g., splitting, merging, etc., may be made based on the tables described above. The names of the parameters indicated in the tables may be other names which are understood by the communication device, and the values or expressions of the parameters may be other values or expressions which are understood by the communication device. When the tables are implemented, other data structures may be used, for example, an array, a queue, a container, a stack, a linear table, a pointer, a linked list, a tree, a graph, a structure, a class, a heap, a hash table, or a hash table.

Predefined in this application may be understood as defining, predefining, storing, pre-negotiating, pre-configuring, curing, or pre-firing.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method of measuring a cell, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment sends first measurement control information to terminal equipment through a first service cell, wherein the first measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, the center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same, the frequency range of the virtual cell is contained in the frequency range of a second service cell, and the frequency range of the second service cell is overlapped with the frequency range of the first service cell;

the first access network device receives a first measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the first measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell;

the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to a third service cell under the condition that the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than that of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell;

the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell;

The virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the first access network device, or the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the second access network device; and is also provided with

The system of the third service cell is the same as that of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell, or the system of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first access network device migrating the terminal device to a third serving cell comprises:

the first access network device sends second measurement control information to the terminal device, wherein the second measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal device to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell;

the first access network device receives a second measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the second measurement report indicates the quality of a downlink reference signal of the third service cell;

and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, the cell identities of the one or more serving cells including a cell identity of the third serving cell, and wherein the first access network device migrates the terminal device to the third serving cell, comprising:

the first access network device selects the third service cell from one or more stored service cells adjacent to the first service cell;

and the first access network equipment migrates the terminal equipment to the third service cell.
A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the first access network device stores a cell identity of the virtual cell, and wherein the first measurement result comprises the cell identity of the virtual cell.
A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the first access network device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, the first measurement result comprising a cell identity of the virtual cell, the cell identity of the virtual cell being different from the cell identity of the one or more serving cells.
The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the virtual cell does not provide access services for terminal devices.
The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the second serving cell has a different format than the first serving cell comprises:

the system supported by the first service cell is a system in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the system supported by the second service cell is a system in new wireless NR; or the system supported by the first service cell is the system in NR, and the system supported by the second service cell is the system in LTE.
The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the first access network device, the method further comprising:

the first access network device sends a downlink signal of the virtual cell, where the downlink signal includes the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.
The method of claim 8, wherein the downlink reference signal comprises a cell reference signal, CRS.
The method of claim 9, wherein the downlink signal further comprises one or more of a primary synchronization signal PSS, a secondary synchronization signal SSS, and a system information block comprising indication information indicating that the virtual cell does not provide access service for a terminal device.
The method of claim 8, wherein the downlink reference signal is a demodulation reference signal, DMRS, and wherein the downlink signal is a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block, SSB, the SSB comprising the DMRS.
The method according to any one of claims 8-11, further comprising:

the first access network equipment sends indication information to terminal equipment accessed to the second service cell through the second service cell;

the indication information is used for indicating available time-frequency resources of the terminal equipment accessing the second service cell, wherein the available time-frequency resources are different from time-frequency resources occupied by the downlink signals of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.
A communication device, comprising a transmitting unit, a receiving unit and a migration unit, wherein:

the sending unit is configured to send, to a terminal device through a first serving cell, first measurement control information, where the first measurement control information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure quality of a downlink reference signal of a virtual cell, center frequency points of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell and the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell are the same, a frequency range of the virtual cell is included in a frequency range of a second serving cell, and the frequency range of the second serving cell overlaps with the frequency range of the first serving cell;

The receiving unit is configured to receive a first measurement report from the terminal device, where the first measurement report indicates quality of a downlink reference signal of the virtual cell;

the migration unit is configured to migrate the terminal device to a third serving cell when the quality of the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell is higher than the quality of the downlink reference signal of the first serving cell;

the system of the second service cell is different from the system of the first service cell, or the system of the second service cell is the same as the system of the first service cell, and the downlink reference signal of the second service cell is different from the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the first service cell;

the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of the communication device, or the virtual cell and the second service cell are cells of a second access network device; and is also provided with

The system of the third service cell is the same as that of the first service cell, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell, or the system of the third service cell is different from that of the first service cell.
The communication device according to claim 13, wherein the migration unit is specifically configured to:

transmitting second measurement control information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second measurement control information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the quality of the downlink reference signal of the third service cell;

receiving a second measurement report from the terminal device, the second measurement report indicating a quality of a downlink reference signal of the third serving cell;

and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell according to the second measurement report.
The communication device according to claim 13, wherein the communication device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, the cell identities of the one or more serving cells including the cell identity of the third serving cell, the migration unit being specifically configured to:

selecting the third serving cell from one or more stored serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell;

and migrating the terminal equipment to the third service cell.
A communication device according to any of claims 13-15, characterized in that the communication device stores a cell identity of the virtual cell, the first measurement result comprising the cell identity of the virtual cell.
The communication device according to any of claims 13-15, wherein the communication device stores cell identities of one or more serving cells adjacent to the first serving cell, wherein the first measurement result comprises a cell identity of the virtual cell, wherein the cell identity of the virtual cell is different from the cell identity of the one or more serving cells.
The communication apparatus according to any of claims 13-17, wherein the virtual cell does not provide access services for terminal devices.
The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 13-18, wherein the second serving cell has a different format than the first serving cell, comprising:

the system supported by the first service cell is a system in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the system supported by the second service cell is a system in new wireless NR; or the system supported by the first service cell is the system in NR, and the system supported by the second service cell is the system in LTE.
The communication device according to any of claims 13-19, wherein the virtual cell and the second serving cell are cells of the communication device, the sending unit being further configured to:

And transmitting a downlink signal of the virtual cell, wherein the downlink signal comprises the downlink reference signal of the virtual cell.
The communications apparatus of claim 20, wherein the downlink reference signal comprises a cell reference signal, CRS.
The communications apparatus of claim 21, wherein the downlink signal further comprises one or more of a PSS, SSS, and a system information block comprising indication information indicating that the virtual cell is not providing access service to a terminal device.
The communications apparatus of claim 20, wherein the downlink reference signal is a DMRS, the downlink signal is an SSB, and the SSB includes the DMRS.
The communication device according to any of claims 20-23, wherein the transmitting unit is further configured to:

transmitting indication information to terminal equipment accessed to the second service cell through the second service cell;

the indication information is used for indicating available time-frequency resources of the terminal equipment accessing the second service cell, wherein the available time-frequency resources are different from time-frequency resources occupied by the downlink signals of the virtual cell; or the terminal equipment used for indicating the access to the second service cell does not use the time-frequency resource occupied by the virtual cell for transmitting the downlink signal.
A communications apparatus comprising a processor coupled to a memory;

the memory is used for storing program codes;

the processor being configured to invoke the program code from the memory to perform the method of any of claims 1-12.
A computer readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1-12 to be implemented.
A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any of claims 1-12.